City of Rockingham council members call for return of officer dedicated to working with area’s youth

WA Police need to reinstate an officer’s position to help with the region’s growing youth population, according to City of Rockingham council members.

Cr Mike Crichton wants the city to push the State Government to employ a full-time permanent community engagement officer across the Baldivis and Rockingham police stations.

The council was scheduled to consider Cr Crichton’s proposal at its Tuesday, May 26, meeting.

In his proposal, Cr Crichton said a full-time dedicated community engagement officer would help strengthen relationships and “build greater respect” for police.

The city is covered by the Baldivis and Rockingham police stations, which are part of the Mandurah policing district.

A council report said the Mandurah district police office previously had a police community and youth engagement team (PCET) comprising a sergeant and two officers, but the youth engagement officers had recently been moved to frontline policing.

As of March there was a new co-ordinator for the PCET but no other officers assigned to it.

City officers regularly meet the officers-in-charge at Baldivis and Rockingham police stations which, according to the report, between them service the largest youth and total population figures in the district.

“The population and specific youth data across the Mandurah policing district demonstrates that the area and volume of people to engage for one WAPOL community and youth engagement officer may be unrealistic,” it said.

Cr Crichton said his proposal was prompted by activity at the Baldivis Sporting Complex s,ate park ,and local police had said having a community officer would make a big difference.

“Looking at the youth population 10-24 years forecast for right up to 2031, Baldivis in particular hits the top of the list there with quite a significant amount of youth,” Cr Crichton said.

Deputy mayor Robert Schmidt said he had worked alongside youth engagement officers at Warnbro Community High School and they were focused on “redirection”.

“(Youth are) 60 per cent more likely to not commit crime than they are to commit a crime,” he said.

He also “took a snipe” at the police and State Government.

“When they did disband the youth engagement team and redeployed them to the front line, we saw major issues across the State with youth crime,” Cr Schmidt said.

Mayor Lorna Buchan said she had seen an increased police presence since the opening of the Baldivis police station, and an engagement officer working between Rockingham and Baldivis would benefit the whole city.

“I think that will be brilliant, a really good asset in helping deliver community safety initiatives,” she said.

The report acknowledged the support of police but said it had since become difficult for the city and police to commit to joint events because of competing police demands.

“The advantage of collaborating with PCET directly was that they were available to commit to participate in community engagements, meetings and events,” the report said.